Architecture: A Plan for How Parts of a Structure Fit Together to Achieve its Purpose William W. Stead, M.D. July 1, 2003 Vanderbilt University Medical Center  Components of the NHII  Where They Live  How They Communicate

Architectural Challenges of the NHII  Scale and scope  National scale, local implementation  Multiple dimensions, e.g. public health, health care, personal actions and records  Both short and long term horizons  Permit significant benefit in 3-5 years  Doing things in a way that achieves the ultimate vision in years  In an environment of constant change  Explosion in biomedical knowledge  Innovation in health practice and policy Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Yr 1Yr 2Yr 3 Information Technology Software Development PERFORMANCE Technical Reality

Vanderbilt University Medical Center  Communication  Data Mining  Visualization Data Processing Implications for technical approach

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Prescriptive standards specifying exactly what must be done in a designated situation Reference standards requiring  That each term (or block of information) has an explicit mapping to related terms  A definition that may be understood by computer programs Implications for role of standards

Straw Person Architecture for the NHII  NHII is an information infrastructure, not information system  NHII sits beside the legacy systems of providers, payers, etc.  Reduces local implementation barriers while making the meaning of content in local systems increasingly explicit with time  Facilitates direct access to external information if permitted by patient consent  Facilitates incorporation of practice guides  NHII evolves to decouple the management of information about patients from the systems that automate practice Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Time-line for evolution of the NHII Near Term  Computable reference standards applied at point of manufacture  Terms for reimbursement contracts  Drug substance, drug form  Applicable elements of LOINC for tests  Single source to computer readable information standards together with tools to ease incorporation in local system implementations  Eligibility queries via APIs  Clinical data exports as text reports with tags according to a document architecture Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Intermediate Term  Patient ID and visit record via smart card  Self charting tools  Export de-identified data for surveillance and quality monitoring  APIs for clinical document queries  Publish practice guides with tags according to a documented architecture Time-line for evolution of the NHII Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Long Term  Authentication services  Consent services  Digital rights technology to protect clinical content  Application components Time-line for evolution of the NHII Vanderbilt University Medical Center